Sandshrew · XY Evolutions, what to know.
About the Sandshrew card
Sandshrew sits at #54 in XY Evolutions, released in November 2016. XY Evolutions is part of the modern English Pokémon TCG era and uses the standard contemporary card frame and rarity tiers. Illustration by Ken Sugimori. Sugimori is the lead character designer of the Pokémon franchise itself. His TCG illustrations carry a tighter, more on-model feel because they are by the same hand that defined how the Pokémon look in the games.
The flavor text on the card reads: "It burrows and lives underground. If threatened, it curls itself up into a ball for protection." Pokédex entries from this era are short and often quirky, written by the original Japanese localization team for a specific stat-block layout that no longer exists in modern cards.
About Sandshrew in the Pokémon world
A small Ground-type curl-up Pokémon. Yellow plated body. Fossil Common with low collector demand outside set completionists.
Print variants and how to spot them
XY Evolutions shipped in standard Holofoil and Reverse Holo prints. No 1st Edition; that convention had been retired years before. The set reuses original Base Set artwork inside modern XY-era card frames, which makes the Evolutions Charizard a popular modern reprint chase despite the small price gap to other 2016 cards.
Grading and condition
Modern Commons grade easily and trade thinly in graded condition. Raw pack-fresh copies are the practical buy for set completion. PSA 10 submissions on a Common from a modern set rarely return enough premium over raw to justify the service fee.
If you are buying this card
Raw copies of this card are inexpensive enough that the grading math rarely justifies submission unless you have a clearly pack-fresh example. For set completionists, picking up a clean raw copy and sleeving it is the practical move.
